Caldwell: "I always look forward to facing them."

3 March 2017

Chesterfield manager Gary Caldwell said that he doesn't expect Swindon Town to change the way they play and that neither will he, as they enter a season defining relegation battle.

The Spireites travel to Swindon tomorrow (3pm), hoping to snatch three points from the fellow relegation battlers. With Caldwell looking forward to facing the Robins, a side whose style of football is similar to his own.

He said: “They are a football team and they don't play any other way. They always look to play out, they look to play between the lines and they play an expansive style of football, which I really admire.

“I don't think they will change and I am very similar, I like to play football in a certain way and I believe that, that way will get you results.

“Swindon are a difficult side to play against, they play a tremendous style of football and I always look forward to facing them because it is a challenge and you have to think about how you approach the game.”

The Spireites were left frustrated on Tuesday night as their fixture against Walsall was postponed due to poor weather conditions, but the former defender said that it gave his side a welcome break from midweek football.

"It has given us that opportunity to freshen up, both in terms of training and doing different things to prepare for Swindon," he said.

“Training has been great, the players have applied themselves really well again and they have taken on board everything we have asked of them.

“As I say every week, it is about 3 o’clock on a Saturday, we need to turn up and that is what matters.

“Three points is a must every week, we prepare each week to win a game and that is our focus again this week. It doesn't matter what other teams do, we have to win our own games and get to a points total that will keep us in the league.”

The 34-year-old has spoken previously about improving the mentality of his squad, and explained to supporters how this can be achieved in the long term.

“Repetition,” Caldwell insisted. “Going over and over incidents so that they then get the pictures in their head and make better decisions from that.

“I said from the start, you cannot click your fingers and things are going to change, you have to work through a process of the players learning and understanding and then implementing it on the pitch.”

Having seen Chris Turner depart this week, Caldwell spoke about the long-term plans that himself, Ashley Carson and Dave Allen have in place, having met with the latter for the first time earlier in the week.

“I was looking forward to meeting him [Allen]. We had an open and honest discussion and I told him what I felt the club needed and he was open with me in terms of the kind of budgets that we are going to have moving forward. It was a good chat, it was positive.

“I had a good relationship with him [Turner], I enjoyed working with him, he was extremely helpful and has worked hard for me ever since I came here. The club has made the decision and Chris moves on and we move on.

“I think we are all working at the club to make it better in every area; the owner, and Ashley obviously felt that it was an area that they could change and bring in different people in different areas in order to improve.

“We are continually trying to do things that are going to help this club move forward and this was an area they felt they could improve upon.”